NIGERA has lost an estimated $3.3 billion (about ₦5.4 trillion) to crude oil theft and pipeline sabotage between 2023 and 2024, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has revealed.
News Point Nigeria reports that NEITI’s Executive Secretary, Dr. Ogbonnaya Orji, disclosed this on Thursday at the 2025 Association of Energy Correspondents of Nigeria (NAEC) Annual Conference in Lagos, themed “Nigeria’s Energy Future: Exploring Opportunities and Addressing Risks for Sustainable Growth.”
Dr. Orji lamented that the country’s energy sector continues to bleed massive revenues to theft, vandalism, and opaque practices, adding that the losses recorded within just one year could have financed Nigeria’s entire federal health budget or provided electricity access to millions of households.
“These losses are not just economic, they represent broken trust, institutional weaknesses, and missed opportunities for national progress. This is precisely why transparency and accountability are not optional. They are existential,” Orji declared.
He noted that Nigeria’s future prosperity would not depend solely on the size of its oil and gas reserves, but on how transparently and prudently the country manages its natural resource wealth, including revenues, contracts, data, and public decisions.
According to NEITI’s 2021–2022 Oil and Gas Industry Reports, Nigeria earned $23.04 billion in 2021 and $23.05 billion in 2022 from the petroleum sector.
However, Orji revealed that ₦1.5 trillion remains outstanding, owed to the Federation Account by some oil companies and government agencies funds he said could have been used to upgrade energy infrastructure, education, healthcare, and social investments.
“Transparency is not a bureaucratic exercise, it is an economic imperative. It attracts capital, technology, and partnerships. Our latest NEITI industry reports make this truth evident,” he stressed.
Dr. Orji emphasised that the era of secrecy in Nigeria’s extractive industries is over, insisting that transparency and accountability must become the “DNA” of governance in the sector.
He highlighted several key initiatives that NEITI has implemented in recent years to strengthen governance and restore public trust, including:
Regular sectoral audits of oil, gas, and solid minerals to track production, payments, and revenue flows;
The Beneficial Ownership Register, which exposes the true owners of over 4,800 extractive assets in Nigeria, helping to curb corruption and illicit financial flows;
The establishment of the NEITI Data Centre, providing real-time, public access to energy sector information; and
Strategic partnerships with the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), and Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to enhance transparency in licensing, metering, and host community management.
He also introduced NEITI’s Just Energy Transition and Climate Accountability Framework, designed to ensure that Nigeria’s gradual shift toward cleaner and renewable energy is fair, inclusive, and transparent.
The NEITI boss urged the Federal Government to match policy statements with innovation, as the country positions natural gas as its transition fuel and renewable energy as its long-term growth engine.
“Our energy future must rest on verifiable data, open contracts, measurable emissions, and accountable institutions. NEITI envisions a sector where every dollar is traceable, every contract is public, every decision is transparent, and every Nigerian citizen can see how natural resources translate into national prosperity,” Orji said.
He reaffirmed NEITI’s commitment to ensuring that every barrel of oil produced, every cubic foot of gas commercialised, and every kobo earned contributes directly to national development, in full public view.